E Business Application: Risks and Recommendations for Local Retailers in Australia

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E BUSINESS APPLICATION
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Table of contents
Introduction 1
Current state 3
Unforeseen risks 5
International retailers risk 5
Changing customer behaviour risk 5
Online retailers risk 5
Conclusion 6
Recommendations 6
Reduce cost of doing business 6
Customer research 7
Upgrade online platform 7
References 8
Appendix 9
Introduction
Dynamics of the retail industry in Australia is evolving at an extremely fast pace that the
laggards are at risk of being left out of the market. From fast moving technology to the changing
taste of consumers, the industry has become more competitive and retailers have to change their
strategy to remain afloat (Bailey et al 2015).
With the retail industry accounting for a large part of Australia’s business activity, the
survival of the industry is crucial for Australia’s economy. The retail industry generating sales of
up to 311 billion dollars per annum and employs 1.3 million Australians.

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The major risk to Australia’s retail industry is not the sales component since customers
would always require goods despite the channel of delivery. The risk would be loss of jobs due
to online retail stores taking large chunks of market share (Balaji and Roy 2017). The ripple
effect may be damaging to the economy.
According to Erica Berchtold, Managing Director, Rebel Sports, the two major risks to
Australia’s local retail stores are overseas companies like Amazon and the changing taste of
consumers. International companies are huge and efficient in their operations hence have lower
overhead costs compared to local retailers. The consumer has also gotten richer, busier and
cosmopolitan in taste making it difficult to pinpoint what the consumer wants from a product
(Retail Prophet 2018).
Daug Stephen of retail prophet claims that retail stores would be required despite the
continuous growth of online retail markets. His argument borders on the fact that humans not
only shop to acquire goods but to fulfil the innate need of socializing. Netscape founder Marc
Andreessen perspective that retail would be dead seems more logical due to the fact that humans
can indulge in many other socializing activities other than shopping. Furthermore, the future
human being may be extremely busy and may have no time to indulge in such socializing
activities like shopping.
To investigate the significance of changes in the retail industry, we would examine the
current status of the Reject retail shop based in Australia and determine what the future looks
like for the retailer (Retail Prophet 2018). We would then recommend suitable strategies that the
retailer may deploy to remain relevant in the near future.
Current state